22 July 2004

Madness

Monday night was Control Room and Our Music. Control Room was great - all about Al Jazeera during the Iraq war. All the people interviewed and followed were really interesting. Once again, there were some great quotes. 'It's like a Hollywood movie,' says one of Al Jazeera's young, educated female producers. 'You know how it's going to end, with the good guys winning and the bad guys getting killed. But you still want to see how it happens.'

Our Music was dreadful - self-indulgent pretentious bollocks. Someone I talked to afterwards reckons it's all Godard's wife's fault. It's been the only dud so far but.

Tuesday made up for it with A Page of Madness - an obscure avant garde Japanese silent film that was made in 1926 and presumed lost until the director found it in his back shed. The music was played live by In the Nursery. It easily took out the spot for my favourite so far. Last year we went to see Alphaville with a soundtrack by Scanner, which was also superb. I hope next year's even better.

Dias de Santiago was last night. It's a cheery wee tale about a guy back from the Peruvian Army who's finding it a little tough to adapt.